Armored Soul
by An0n Author
Summary: In a world where the Armored Cores have revolutionized warfare, we follow four children that are thrown into the midst of combat. Will they survive and become heroes or will they die in combat.


**And here we go with another story!**

**Eve: But Anon... Don't you have enough stories to be working on?**

**Well... This one sort of popped into my mind and I didn't want to forget it =w=**

**Blaze: Saaayyy... WHAT!? EMBER AND MYSELF AREN'T IN THIS ONE!?**

**You'll be in this one, but you won't be playing as major characters. Only your names will be used for and you aren't part of the main characters.**

**Blaze: Fine...**

**Anyway, the classes will be:**

**Code Nemesis age 18**

**Tactical Trooper 17**

**Iron Paladin 21**

**Reckless Fist 28**

**Lord Knight 17**

**Elemental Master 17**

**Night Watcher 27**

**Blazing Heart 18**

**Yama Raja 17**

**And everyone here are humans as well.**

**Chung: ... Heeeeyyyy, who's the Iron Princess here?**

**Lacher: Sup.**

**Chung: Oh...**

**And without any further delay, onto the story!**

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_**Iron Heart**_

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"Come on Els, wake up already!" The creamed colored boy complained as he tugged on the blankets that covered the red headed boy. The red head only grumbled and pulled the sheets over his head in protest.

"Five more minutes." He grumbled as he shifted under his sheets.

"Come on Elsword, you're going to miss the opening of the 15th Anniversary of the El Scouts!" The red head twitched under the covers slightly when he bursted from the bed, flinging the covers off.

"WAIT, IT'S TODAY!? Why didn't you tell me that Chung!?"

"I thought you remembered since you kept on mentioning it last night." Elsword face palmed at his slow memory as he got up and went over to his dresser to get changed.

"You are one hell of a deep sleeper Elsword." Chung said as he leaned in the rooms door frame.

"Come on Chung. How have you not learned that in all the years you've been living with us?" Chung only rolled his eyes as he followed Elsword out the door. Down stairs Elsword's and Chung's parents were finishing up breakfast and Elsa was waiting for them down stairs.

"Took you long enough Chung, what kept the two of you?"

"Els kept on sleeping..."

"Hey! I forgot that it was the 15th anniversary!" His moth laughed softly and Ember pulled his cheek softly.

"Come on Els, eat up you breakfast quickly because we also need to pick up Aisha on the way to the." Nodding, both Chung and Elsword started to devour their meals. Scooping the last of the scrambled eggs into their mouths, they deposited their empty dishes in the sink before giving a hug to their mother and father.

"Elsa, make sure you bring them back in time for the parade!" "Got it mom!" She gave a wave to them before closing the door behind her. The street was already filled with people that were getting ready for the parade. It was still early in the morning, and the freshness of the the morning spring air still wavered in the air. Elsword walked happily for the yearly event, celebrating the new generation of fighters, and the first constructions of the Armored Core regiments. 15 years ago, there was a war between Hamel and Altera with Altera taking over most of Hamel's land when Velder stepped in to help with the war. With the combined powers of the worlds two super powers, Altera was pushed back and Hamel reclaimed the land they had lost along with some more land from Altera. In the end, the war had lasted for over a decade and it only came to the end with the introduction with the Armored Core's. Ten years into the war was when they were introduced and they had helped win the war. Ever since their introduction in the war, people have celebrated the creation of these machines for they had brought an end to the war sooner than it would have been if they weren't created.

Getting back with the trio, Elsword knocked on Aisha's door and he was greeted by her mother.

"Yes?"

"Is Aisha around?"

"Oh, you must be the friends she was talking about. Aisha honey, you're friends are here!"

"Coming mom!" Her foot steps echoed out through the door as she stepped gingerly down the stairs and went outside to give Elsword a hug as a greeting. He started to blush slightly as Aisha hugged him and Chung snickered in the background. "You ready for 15 anniversary Els?"

"Oh yes I am... And can you stop hugging me in front of everyone? It's kind of embarrassing..." She let go and gave a smile before they started to leave.

"Bye mom!"

"Have a great time dear!" She called after Aisha and she waved in return. They all walked to the airfield where this was being hosted and the place was started to fill up with people. Everyone around, and even out of, town came over to take part in the event with old equipment on display, older fighting vehicles were being displayed as well along with some old airplanes and jets. However, what the main attraction were the Armored Cores that were on display. As the four of them paid their entrance fee, the air around them started to fill with the aroma of baked goods, and other foods and Elsword started to drool slightly.

"Oh come on Els. You just had breakfast and you're starting to get hungry again?" Elsa teased and Elsword pouted.

"Come on... I'm not _that_ hungry... Though it all does smell really good..." He mumbled that last part and eyed one of the fried dough shops. The day progressed and the four went around the event, looking at the displays they've got up. Some battle reincarnations, along with sitting down to eat at lunch when they finally went over to the Armored Core display. Different mechs were on display from different evolutions and modified designs and Chung was all over them. Elsword smirked as he watched Chung stare at them with a soft smile on his face. Reading the sign in front of the mech, it told the history of it all. When it was made, how many were produced, what armaments it carried, and the name of the creator, Wally. Even with the soft smile on his face, his eyes emptied slightly as he looked at the name Wally and Elsword could never figure out why he had that look in his eye when he looked at the word, "Wally," but he knew it meant something to him. Getting to the last display, which was the most crowded one of all, was the display of the Elite El Scouts in the flesh and blood. A women, with long silver hair, sat on top of what must be her own mech while and looked down upon the crowed while hugging her knees. Her mech was the smallest out of all the others but it still looked extremely sturdy and can stand its own in a fire fight. A man stood in the front with a stern face, muscular body, and a tuft of white hair amongst the ebony black hairs. His mech was the second biggest out of the bunch and the right arm of the mech was the eye attractor for it was larger than the other one and looked menacing. There was this other women with long spring green hair standing next to him with her own mech behind her. It was the second smallest out of the four while one of the mechs arms didn't have a hand but more of a nozzle. Then there was this long, blond haired man with sky blue eyes similar to Chung and he too was sitting on top of his own mech which was the largest out of all of them along with it being the bulkiest and most armored out of all of them. People were taking pictures of the four ace pilots when Elsword pulled on Chung's arms.

"Hey, lets go to the battle simulators Chung!"

"Naahh... You can go a head Els. I'll just watch." Chung said and looked back up at the four when Elsword sighed.

"You _always_ say that Chung. In all the years we came here, you have not once stepped one foot inside the simulator!"

"Elsword's right you know Chung." Aisha joined in with a mater of fact tone. "There's nothing to gain from not doing it so go on, try it." Since Chung was backed in a corner, he sighed and said that he will go on and try out.

"You two can go ahead. Aisha and myself will watch the battle screen so good luck to the two of you." Aisha and Elsa left the two as they got into line and it seemed to have taken for ever to get into the simulator when Elsword went in. The whole time Chung watched the combat screens and made mental notes on different places where he could go along with the types of mechs he will be fighting with. Minutes passed and Elsword exited the pod frustrated yet excited.

"Oh my El, that never gets old!" Patting Chung on the back he grinned. "Good luck buddy! You'll need it." Chung smiled as he stepped forward.

'_Good luck to me? Heh... My opponent is the one needing the luck.'_ With the hatch closing behind him, he sat down in the pilots seat and game booted up. _'So, it's still all the same so that should mean that.._.'Feeling around, he found this little slot and he smirked. Taking a necklace out he wore under his shirt and took out this little data chip, inserting it into the slot he found.

"_Username and Password please."_ Chung typed in quickly User1 as his username and Seiker as the password and the system excepted it as different fighting models of the Armored Core mechs. Picking one of them, the battle began with the intermission screen stating who is against who. On the outside, the screen displayed his opponents mech, the standard mass production version of the Armored Core, while Chung's was a black outline of an unknown mech. The black haired man took notice of this and looked up at the silver haired girl in question.

"Hey, Eve, you know what's going on over there? Is there some sort of glitch going on?"

"I checked the system before everything was opened and I found no errors Raven."

"Hhhhmmm..." Raven looked at the two screens in wonder as they changed to the battlefield with one showing Chung's opponent moving and the other was on Chung's who was this silver, medium sized mech with one single large cannon mounted on it's shoulder. Everyone in the crowed, "Oooohhh'd," and, "Aaaahh'd," as they looked at Chung's mech and the spring green haired lady and blond haired boy took notice as well.

"Hey... Raven. Isn't that the-"

"It's the Mk.V Prototype. Eve, I though you only had the Armored Core's installed on the game."

"I did sir. I have no clue why that's in there." Raven could only grunt as he waited for the fight to finish and Chung was smirking the whole time. He expertly maneuvered the controls as he maneuvered from cover to cover in his mech. Bullets thudded into the ground as the opponent tried to hit him. He pushed a button for one of the many hidden weapons in the mech's frame, he pulled out a knife, throwing it at the enemy who was advancing quickly, striking its rifle rendering it useless when he jumped to the side, aiming with the large cannon, and firing. The shot sailed across the field impacting the armored unit, ripping a massive hole on where the driver was before the unit exploded making Chung the victor. With the screen going back to the starting one, Chung signed out of the profile and removed the data chip, placing it back into the necklace he wore and hid it once more as he left the simulator. The instant he left, Elsword immediately got him in a head lock and ruffled his head.

"Wow Chung! I didn't know you could do that!"

"Uuuuhhh... I guess it was beginners luck?"

"Yeah! And what was that type of Mech you used?"

"I don't know to be honest. I just uuuhh... Found it when scrolling through the different options." Elsword continued to rant on how great and awesome he was when Chung looked past him and he came eye to eye with Raven. His amber eyes bored their way into Chung's cerulean and the two broke contact when a message came over the loud speaker.

"_The parade will begin with in the hour. All personnel connected to the parade, please make your way to the starting line."_

"That's our cue. Lets go team." Eve opened a hatch on top of her mech jumped down into the drivers seat. Rena skillfully climbed up her own mechs arms and slid into her own mechs drivers seat while Lacher jumped down from the top of his mech and opened the front of his own mech to get inside as did Raven. Powering up, the mechs eyes light up and they all started to stand to their full height and everyone went goggly eyes as the four machines left the display room.

"Come on Els!" Aisha wined as she pulled on his arm. "We're going to be late!"

"Well... We won't exactly be that late. We still got about 20 minutes till the parade will start so we can hang around here some time." Elsa added and Elsword nodded in agreement. They hung around the festival area for the next 20 minutes with Elsword getting Aisha a caramel apple and playing with some of the carnival games when Elsa said it was time to get back to the house. By the time they exited the fair grounds, the parade had all ready started and people lined the side walks as the floats and different marching bands were coming through while some pilots performed aerial performances to add to everything. Some of the floats were promoting the area's local shops and stores like "Phorumart" and "Banthu's Burritos" **(Thank's ShadisticArchdevil for the last one XD)** when some floats came resembling the different fighting groups of the El Scouts force with the ground troops, some of the early armored devisions, air devisions, and sea fighters. However, there was this one float in particular that seemed almost out of placed. It was this one float blandish in appearance with a mix of different fighting units but all their symbols depicting which area they were from were missing.

"Hey, Aisha, what's that float over there?" Elsword pointed at the strange float and she could only shrug as they got in front of his house when it stopped randomly in the road.

"What the?" Machine gun fire ripped through the bands music and sent everyone into a panic. The abnormal flat was slowly getting ripped apart as internal weapons opened fire on their surroundings. Elsa quickly grabbed Chung, Aisha, and Elsword and throwing them against the ground covering them with her own body as a hail of bullets rained down in all directions. Screams of terror ripped through the air as civilians started to run from the strange float when Armored Core's started to rip through the paper outer surface of the float and fired rockets in random directions to cause more chaos. Elsword could see a small opening being on the bottom of the pile and watched in horror as one of the rockets barreled towards his house. His screams were lost in the massive explosion, developing enough of a shock to throw Elsa, Aisha, and Chung off of him and it exposed him to the battleground around him. The aerial performance planes were being shot down by enemy fighters and the whole neighbor hood was on fire. His own house was up in flames with both his parents still inside and death surrounded him. Neighbors he knew lay in a puddle of crimson red blood and screams still filled the streets. Elsword eyes were full of shock as he took in his surroundings before he covered his mouth with his hand, kneeling over to vomit. He just sat there on his knees in complete shock at what just happened and Chung tried to snap him out of hit.

"Come on Els! We need to move! Listen to me, we have to move!" He shook him to no avail as he kept on staring ahead with dull unresponsive eyes. Heavy mechanical foots steps sounded behind him, and Chung looked back to see one Armored Cores that came out of the float standing above him staring down at him.

"Target located. Extracting him now." The mech reached down to grab Chung and he was frozen when another mech charged into the other knocking it over before driving it's large knife into it killing the pilot.

"Are you two safe?" Chung immediately recognized the Armored Core as Raven's own mech when he ducked under a strike from the other mech that came out of the float. He had short barreled cannon tube aimed at him and he quickly knocked away from him but accidentally hit it towards Chung's, Elsword's, Aisha's, and Elsa's position and the cannon fired. Lacher quickly slid in front of the shell with shields activated shielding everyone from the explosion when Eve jumped onto the mechs back driving a knife into the cockpit.

"Raven, watch were you deflect those weapons. We might have more civilian casualties if you do it wrong."

"Sorry Rena... As for you three, head north. There should be a refugee camp being set up and I want all of you to get there." Above in the sky, enemy transport ships were dropping off multiple troops and mechs and they all parachuted to the ground. The sky was filled with smoke from multiple fires. Elsa was quickly at Elswords side snapping him out of his episode along with Aisha when Raven spoke up again. "We don't have the power to protect this place so I want everyone to cover the civilians as they retreat. I want the Nemesis and Night Watcher to cover the eastern most part of this town's retreat while Reckless Fist and the Iron Paladin cover the West."

"Roger!" Eve and Rena took off to their designated support area and Lacher tried to stand up but his mech fell back down again.

"Agh! The Paladin's left leg is acting up again!"

"Out of all the times..." Chung looked around quickly before making a quick decision and started to crawl up the legs of Lacher's mech.

"H-Hey! Kid, what are you doing? Get off of here!"

"Shut up and let me fix this thing!" Chung opened the access panel on the back overriding the security systems and started to go through the Paladin's systems, rerouting power from nonessential areas of the machine down to the leg before he closed it back up. "This should work."

Lacher tried the controls again and the Paladin stood up leaving both himself and Raven dumbfounded on how this kid knew how to fix these.

"How did you..."

"No time Lacher, we need to move!"

"Right, sir!" Both Lacher and Raven left quickly to cover the with drawl of their hometown and Raven took one quick look back at Chung.

'_Just who in the hell are you Kid?'_ Elsa gave Chung a questioning look before herself and Aisha helped Elsword stand and they all started to head North with the rest of people. Some had some bloodied bandages while others were kneeling on the ground, mourning over lost family members or close friends. The farther they got, the more present Hamel's military force had made itself when they reached a train station. Everyone was boarding it to head further inland to escape and the three managed to get in on one of the departing trains. The train ride took a few hours and in that time, someone had a radio reporting that Altera forces were behind this attack. All that time, Elsword still had the same blank expression as his mind turned in turmoil.

'_My parents... Dead... My house... Burned to the ground... My peaceful life... Taken from me... Who to blame... Who to blame, who to blame, who to blame!?'_ Getting off the train, Elsa checked them all into a refugee camp and got some rations consisting of a loaf of bread, and one large blanket to cover them all. Aisha some how managed to find her parents and the three of them stuck around with her parents when Elsword finally spoke.

"Altera... Killed my parents and destroyed my home..."

"Els, I'm so sorry." Aisha grabbed onto his arm to comfort him when he looked up at Chung.

"They were coming after you Chung, one of them tried to get you Chung!" He got to his feet before socking Chung in the face knocking him over before getting on top of him to choke him. It took both Elsa and Aisha to pry Elsword off of Chung and Chung held a hand to his throat as he coughed looking back at Elsword with saddened eyes.

"Elsword! What is wrong with you! Chung was not the person that caused the death of our parents!"

"He may not have been the cause of our parents death but there's something he's hiding. He's hiding something and this isn't the same Chung I knew before. Just who the hell are you!?" Elsword yelled and Chung looked down further casting a shadow over his eyes. "He knew how to pilot the Armored Cores. He knows how to fix them as we all saw before. Just who the hell are you Chung?"

"That's something I would also like to know." All eyes turned to the new comers voice to find it was Raven with the rest of his team behind him. His amber eyes looked down at all of them and Chung tried the best to avoid them along with the others. "You had access to the fighting model of the Mk.V Prototype for the simulator and you were able to get Lacher's Armored Core back up and running. No one has access to that type of information."

The shadow that covered Chung's eye deepened as he looked lower and he finally gave in.

"Chung you don't have to-"

"No Elesis. I've all ready shown to much and they all must know." He took a deep breath before looked back at Elsword and the others before speaking. "You are correct Els. I'm not the person you know and I have been hiding something about myself from you.

Elsword was taken back by his words since all his life, he thought he knew all about Chung. "You all ready know that I was taken in by your parents ever since my own were killed, but you don't know is that my parents were part of the creation of the Armored Cores." Everyone was taken back by Chung's words and Raven couldn't believe his ears.

"But that doesn't explain how you got to use the Mk.V Prototype in the simulator. There's no way to also upload files into it as well."

"Hmph, that's simple. I was the one that designed the simulator along with the designer of the Mk.V Prototype."

"What!? That can't be unless you're-"

"Helputt Seiker's son? The creator of all the Armored Cores?" Raven was taken back before himself, Rena, Eve, and Lacher stood straighter as they realized who they were talking to.

"Helputt Seiker? I thought Wally was the creator of the Armored Cores." Aisha was even more confused and looked at Chung to only look at Elsa for the answer.

"Wally was the cover person so the enemy won't try and kidnap Helputt for his information."

"Wait, sis, how do you know that?" Elsword looked at his sister questionably and she looked away slightly from him.

"There's more to me than what you currently know Els..." She looked away from Els and found the grass under her was more interesting.

"Elsa was assigned to me after my parents were killed. That's the main reason why I was taken under the care of your parents."

"Elsa... Chung... You kept all of this hidden from me? I thought I could trust the two of you..." Elsword got up to leave when Elsa grabbed onto his arm.

"Elsword you don't understand at all! It was for your safety! No one knows about how Helputt and Chung are the original creators of the Armored Core's and it was safer for you to not know." Elsword sighed in defeat and sat back down when Chung turned Raven and his team.

"I'm happy to see these Armored Cores are still running smoothly... However, I'm not so happy how the Iron Paladin was performing earlier. You may want to have that checked out Lacher."

"Chung, if I may, how do you know all of this about the Armored Cores? Sure you might be the son of the great Helputt, but when they were made, you must have been only one or two years old." Rena added and Chung nodded slowly.

"Well of course I didn't know anything about this when they first came out. But, as I got older, my father would tell me more about them and he started to teach me. I would stare at the blueprints of the Nemesis, Night Watcher, Reckless Fist, and the Iron Paladin memorizing them along with designing my own designs of some Armored Cores and programing the whole simulator that pilots use." Raven nodded as he absorbed hte information when he turned around.

"That's all I came here for. Thank you for your time and we now have to go. Come on, command must have a mission ready for us." Raven and his squad left and everyone was quiet. Days turned into weeks as and they had to keep moving from refugee camp, to refuge camp because Hamel was being pushed further and further back when one day, Elsword came to a decision.

"I've now decided. I'm going to join the El Scouts Armored Devision..." Elsa was busy washing a dish at the new refugee camp and she nearly dropped it at Elswords statement when she gave him a had look.

"You are not going to join them Els." Elsa said forcefully.

"I am too joining them Elsa. You want to avenge our parents death?" She couldn't think up anything to counter his statement and stayed quiet as she placed the plate down. "Joining them will be one of the only way that I see that I can do to avenge their deaths." Aisha was in the same room helping cleaning their dinner up with her parents as well when she spoke up as well.

"If Elsword is going, then I'm joining as well." Aisha said but her parents immediately objected. "You both well know that sitting around waiting won't solve anything so I want to end this war as quickly as we can so I'm joining if you like it or not." Her parent's couldn't counter that and excepted.

"Just please Aisha my dear, please don't die out there."

"I promise I wont."

"And I'm going as well for I need to keep an eye on my little brother.~" She ruffled his hair playfully as Chung grabbed onto his necklace.

"And that leaves me joining as well. On the plus side, I think the Hamel development team would love to get their hands on these mock designs and prototypes I have." With the three deciding, they only needed to wait three months before they turned 18 to be able to be eligible to join the military services.

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**Ara: HEY! WHERE AM I IN THIS STORY!? *Raises her spear threateningly***

**Anon: *Sweat drops* Don't worry Ara, you will be in the next chapter...**

**Ara: *Goes back to her sweet self* Ok~ *Skips away***

**And if you were wondering, only special versions of the Armored Cores will be named. Most of the others are going to be massed produced models until they've earned their own mech and yes, they're going to be named by their class.**

**I hope you liked this new story and Follow, Favorite, and don't forget to review! Reviews = Authors motivation! Now until next time, Anon, signing off.**

***Connection Lost***


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